SEO- Keyword Basics

Keywords are what search engines are based on and how web surfers are led to web sites that contain the information that they are looking for. In order for your web page or site to be found in search engines, it much be optimized for keyword density and relevancy.

Keyword density is the rate or measurement of how many times a keyword or keyword phrase appears or is repeated within the website content. This measurement is based upon each page, not the complete site. Some pages will naturally rank higher in the search engines than others.

Keyword relevancy is a measurement of how well your keywords relate to the rest of your content. It is a measurement that search engines use to make certain that your keywords have not been just thrown into a mixture of other words that are not associated with the main keyword.

The proper use of keywords and keyword phrases is typically thought to be around 3-5%.To arrive at a keyword density percentage, divide the number of times the keyword is used by the number of words in the article. For example, if a keyword is used 5 times in a 100 word article, the keyword density rate would be 5%. To follow the above keyword density rules, a 100 word article would have to use the targeted keyword 3-5 times within the article.

Web masters are now having to take several other factors into effect when trying to optimize their web sites. Google for one uses algorithms that seem to be forever changing with each update. The “Google Bots” seem to be looking for different web site characteristics each time they scour the pages of your web site. One month it seems that they will be concentrating on keywords and their usage and the next month it will seem to lean towards incoming links and the pages that your site is associated with.

While keyword density and quality content are still important, their seems to be an increasing amount of importance placed on incoming links and the ranks of the pages that they come from. Right now it seems as if most web masters are getting optimal results from using a keyword density rate of 3-5% on their web content along with a mixture of inbound links from web sites that have a Google page rank of 4 or higher.

This use to be a simple way to assure that your web page was optimized to it’s fullest potential but due to the increased number of junk content or spam that was being manipulated to meet this content formula, the search engines are constantly changing what is needed to achieve a good sear engine ranking.

The bottom line is that the basics still ring true when it comes to achieving good search engine rankings. By producing a web site with unique, well written content you will be well on your way to achieving a good search engine ranking for your chosen keywords.